As part of its #PeopleNotPolls coverage of the UK general election, RT's Tom Mellors spoke to a former banker who’s challenging one of Britain’s most prominent Conservative ministers with a pledge to introduce ‘direct democracy’ if elected.

The Maidenhead
constituency election campaign is in full swing and independent
candidate Ian Taplin is out pressing flesh.

As I step out of Maidenhead’s Victorian train station, I spot the
former banker turned whistleblower laughing with two shop workers
near a bicycle rack.

Dressed in cycling gear, which Taplin says is part of his image,
he pauses briefly to greet me, before returning to his tirade
against Maidenhead’s incumbent MP, Conservative Home Secretary
Theresa May.

Taplin’s canvasing has all the hallmarks of old school street
corner oratory, replete with jokes and the odd curse word for
comic effect. It’s a far cry from the staid and sterile
politicians we find on TV, and his audience seems to be loving
it.

This is what makes Taplin so fascinating. He has all the gung-ho
improvisation of a UKIP candidate, but his message could not be
more different.

An ex-army officer who served in Armagh, Northern Ireland, during
the Troubles, Taplin worked as a banker until 2010, when he was
sacked from Lloyds Bank after raising allegations of misconduct.

This whistleblower claims his dismissal was unlawful because as a
regulated adviser he was legally obliged to “report customer
abuses and unfair treatment to the bank and also the
regulator.”

He has taken his original complaint – which he alleges Lloyds
Bank failed to investigate – to the Financial Conduct Authority
(FCA), which is now carrying out a probe. I worked with Taplin on
a documentary about his whistleblowing experience in 2013.

Battle for Maidenhead

Having taken on the fiscal establishment, Taplin is now fixing
his sights on Tory Home Secretary Theresa May. Key to his arsenal
is his flagship policy of direct democracy.

If elected, Taplin pledges to let Maidenhead citizens decide how
he should vote in Parliament through a local voting system. The
idea stems from his own dissatisfaction with party politics in
the UK.

“Theresa May is the Tory representative in the
constituency,” he tells a supportive taxi driver on our way
to the town center. “Not the Maidenhead representative in
Parliament.”

Despite his confidence, Taplin faces an uphill struggle. May has
been MP for Maidenhead since 1997 and won the last general
election with 59.5 percent of the vote.

However May, who also has a background in finance, has cut a
controversial figure as home secretary for her defense of mass
surveillance by intelligence agencies and her tough stance on
counter-terror policy.

Since taking over the portfolio, the home secretary has used
secretive powers to strip 24 people – some of whom are suspected
terrorists – of their British citizenship, according to the
Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The highly-controversial practice has been criticized by human
rights activists, with Isabella Sankey of the campaign group
Liberty describing the move as “a hallmark of oppressive and
desperate regimes.”

With Prime Minister David Cameron recently naming May as a
potential successor as leader, Taplin has chosen one of Britain’s
hardest seats to contest. So who would vote for him?

“I predict that I’m going to get a very good support from the
young. I reckon I can get 60 to 70 percent of the young to vote
for me,” Taplin says, as we settle on a bench in Maidenhead
town center.

“The direct democracy idea is a way to engage voters and
young people in our political processes … the young people in
this country feel completely disengaged from the process.”

Direct democracy

Taplin chose to embrace direct democracy after becoming
dissatisfied with Britain’s political parties, which force their
members to toe the line, even if it works against their
constituents’ interests.

“Their first and foremost loyalty is to the Tory party and
the Labour Party,” he says. “I’m turning that on its
head completely. I don’t belong to any political party, I will be
Maidenhead’s Member of Parliament.”

Taplin has drawn up a timetable on his website
detailing how direct democracy would be implemented in the
constituency.

Only registered-voters would be allowed to take part in the
system and it would be open to people aged 14 and over. “I’m
bringing in the young from an early age,” Taplin explains.

The MP’s job would be to notify Engaged Persons (EPs) – anyone
participating in the local system – of upcoming Parliamentary
votes and invite them to participate in an online discussion.

If there is enough interest, a public meeting will be held where
citizens can debate the proposed legislation.

“It becomes an experience, it engages them. And they know
they’re talking to somebody who’s listening, not some distant
Member of Parliament who’s not even bothered talking to
them,” Taplin says.

If successful in the election on May 7, he estimates direct
democracy would be fully operational by January 2016.

‘Tories represent the banks’

Taplin’s disillusionment with British politics goes beyond his
critique of the party system. The former financial adviser says
powerful banks have infiltrated the Conservative Party, extending
their influence into government.

He cites a report by the Bureau of Investigation Journalism
published in September 2011 which found 51 percent of
Conservative donations came from the financial services sector.

“It’s a Tory party which represents the City of London,
because that’s where their income is coming from,” Taplin
says. “There is a direct relationship between giving money to
a party and receiving something back. Otherwise why would they
even bother?”

“[The Party is] in the pockets of the City of London and City
donors, and only strong in one area of the country, which is the
South.”

“The Tory Party is now known as the party of the ‘1
percenters’… there’s a lot of truth in that.”

Taplin proposes state funding for political parties based on
party membership numbers, £5,000 caps on private donations, and
total transparency to combat the “corporate
stranglehold” on politics.

The ex-Platoon Commander has little sympathy for the archaic
nature of Britain’s political processes, which he sees as out of
touch with ordinary life in the country.

Banker-turned-whistleblower

Taplin’s antipathy for the political system is surpassed only by
his anger at the banks. Given his experience as a whistleblower,
this is hardly surprising.

His story begins in 2005, when he was recruited by Lloyds Private
Banking to work as a financial investment adviser in Guildford.

Early on, Taplin says he noticed a significant disparity between
the way rich customers and poor customers were treated.

Wealthier clients “were given access to the country’s most
competitive products,” such as life insurance. Poorer
customers on the other hand, were “treated as mass
market.”

“The poorer customers were at a financial disadvantage,
because they are buying products, for example of premiums in life
insurance, which were £100 per month for 25 years,” Taplin
says.

In contrast, “the private banking customers were buying
contracts at £60 per month. £40 difference, £500 different a
year. Basically, the poorer people were paying nearly £13,000
extra charges for being poorer.”

“The more I looked into it, the more I realized the whole
system was geared in this fashion. Well, the law says, and I’ve
done multiple exams, that you must treat customers ‘fairly’.
That’s all you need. The law says fairly. Is it fair? No, they
broke the law,” he adds.

Ian Taplin at #Lloydsagm
exposes new strand of misselling & wealth-based
discrimination at Lloyds; he says it's being probed by @theFCA

Taplin claims he was offered settlement packages on two occasions
while trying to complain about the selling practice, offers which
were tantamount to “blackmail.”

“I complained to Lloyds Bank, who threatened me, bullied me
and then eventually fired me, having half destroyed my
life.”

His complaint against Lloyds Bank is currently being investigated
by the FCA for a second time, the first being dismissed in
December 2013.

Since being fired by Lloyds Bank in 2010, Taplin has sought the
help of Theresa May, his local MP, in pursuing his complaint with
the FCA.

Taplin says he met with May 13 times over four years, totting up
more than five hours of meetings. While May eventually supported
his complaint, he says it was difficult dealing with her due to
her “conflict of interest.”

As a local MP she has a duty to represent Taplin, but as
“part of a government which is forcing through austerity cuts
and actually trying to prop up the banks … [it] puts her in a
really difficult position.”

May’s divided loyalty is Taplin’s main point of attack in this
election campaign, which sees one man and a handful of supporters
challenge the Conservatives’ star female politician.

While he may not succeed at the ballot box, he at least stands a
good chance of invigorating debate in the sleepy Tory safe seat.

“I’ve never done this before,” he tells me after
canvassing the public. “And I absolutely love it.”